Off the wire
• Xinhua Asia-Pacific news summary at 0600 GMT, March 23  • Roundup: New Zealand-S. Korea FTA under fire as provisions revealed  • Roundup: S. Korea, New Zealand formally sign FTA  • Xi offers condolences to Singapore over Lee's death  • Indian PM condoles death of Singapore's founding father  • HK chief executive expresses condolences over Lee Kuan Yew's death  • Vietnam reports outbreak of avian H1N1 flu among human  • Cambodian PM expresses condolences over Lee Kuan Yew's death  • Indian stocks open higher  • Taiwan's jobless rate drops to near 15-year low  
You are here: 　 Home

Roundup: Myanmar peace talks come to recess as issues remain

Xinhua, March 23, 2015 Adjust font size:

Peace negotiators of the Myanmar government and ethnic armed groups announced on Sunday that the nationwide ceasefire talks in Yangon will be in recess for a week until March 30.

The government's Union Peace-Making Work Committee (UPWC) and ethnic armed groups' Nationwide Ceasefire Coordination Team (NCCT) revealed that there remains four points that still need to seek consensus from the top level of both sides.

However, the peace negotiators affirmed their commitment to finalizing the negotiation on the draft nationwide ceasefire accord.

Through the seven rounds of talks, peace negotiators have completed all seven chapters of the draft nationwide ceasefire accord, leaving the four points yet to be finalized.

The seventh round of peace talks in Yangon commenced on last Tuesday, focusing on remaining points of the draft nationwide ceasefire accord left by the previous talks in a bid to finalize the draft and push for its signing.

The UPWC side was led by its Vice Chairman U Aung Min, who is also minister at the President's Office while the NCCT side was headed by U Naing Han Tha.

During the six-day peace talks, the armed group suggested that issues of fightings in Kachin state, Ta'ang or Palaung area and Kokang region should be covered in the discussions to bring about reduction of tension in those areas.

A day before the start of the seventh round of talks, Myanmar President U Thein Sein, Vice President Sa Mauk Kham and Commander- in-Chief of the Defense Service Senior-General Min Aung Hlaing met separately for the first time with a special delegation of the Kachin Independence Organization (KIO) in Nay Pyi Taw, led by its General Secretary Dr. La Ja and its army's Deputy Chief of Staff Major-General Guan Maw.

During the meeting, the KIO forwarded a peace proposal, signed by its chairman, to the president, reaffirming its commitment to the ongoing peace process until its success.

During the week-long talks, peace negotiators of both sides also agreed to raise conflict-hit Kokang as a separate issue to be discussed after the end of this round of talks.

The NCCT called for inclusion of Kokang ethnic armed group, also known as Myanmar National Democratic Alliance Army (MNDAA), to ensure attaining peace, saying that MNDAA is a member of the NCCT and exclusion of the MNDAA in the ceasefire signing will be impossible to gain peace and the nationwide ceasefire accord would not be complete.

Ever since the 1950s and 1960s, there has been in existence of a number of ethnic armed groups. Since U Thein Sein's government took office in March 2011, it has vigorously pushed the process of national reconciliation, having realized ceasefire with 14 ethnic armed groups individually out of 16 and it is now moving forward to a nationwide ceasefire.

Meanwhile, heavy fighting between the government forces and the Kokang ethnic army continued almost on a daily basis and unconfirmed fighting recurred in Kachin state in the weekend with government forces air striking the KIO in the state's Mansi township amid peace talks in Yangon. Endi